Some cases of congenital esophageal atresia are not suitable for immediate treatment by primary anastomosis because the closed ends of the atretic segments are spaced too far apart to be joined without undue tension. The most widely used previous method to treat this type of condition has been to interpose a segment of colon between the atretic esophageal segments at a later age. This method is described by Azar et al, J. Pediatric Surgery 6:3-9(1971).
However, the nerves in the colonic segment function somewhat differently from the nerves in the esophageal segments and, therefore, the rhythmic contracting (tensing) and dilating (relaxing) of the joined different segments is relatively nonuniform and inefficient for transporting food from the mouth to the stomach. For this reason, the method of this invention is believed to be a considerable improvement over the colon interposition method because the repaired esophagus of this invention contains only esophageal tissue.